


Detectives

by towardsmorning



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Community: yj_anon_meme, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-12
Updated: 2011-01-12
Packaged: 2017-10-14 17:04:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/151525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/towardsmorning/pseuds/towardsmorning
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>(Prompt: Superboy comes across death for the first time since escaping Cadmus, and doesn't understand why anyone would do this and is basically the very young person that he is. And young Robin being the one to try to comfort and explain to Superboy about death, because he grew up in Gotham.)</i></p><p>"The thing about working with Batman is: he's a detective. Everyone knows this of course, but Robin doesn't think most people realise precisely what this means."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Detectives

**Author's Note:**

> Animated continuity, naturally.

The thing about working with Batman is: he's a detective.

Everyone knows this of course, but Robin doesn't think most people realise precisely what this means. In between fighting the Jokers and the Two-Faces and the Poison Ivys, which everybody hears about and which make headlines that come complete with luridly coloured photographs to match, there are the thugs and the gangs and the stake-outs. There are the cases where it's a body in shabby, featureless clothing and all the evidence has been washed away by rain or, if a crook feels especially cliche, water from the river it's been dumped in.

He mentioned this once to Wally, who had misunderstood him and made sympathetic noises about how "man, that must be boring". At the time Robin had just shrugged and dropped the subject, but he understood better when a few months later he ended up working with KF and Flash in Central City and they got through the entire mission without having to wonder whether anybody was going to have died. Maybe Flash took Wally along on _those_ kinds of missions and maybe not- Robin wasn't sure how to just _ask_ that kind of thing- but he was pretty sure it wasn't a regular concern. Which was nice, really.

The thing about working with Batman is: it isn't all superpowers and mad science.

You don't unfreeze a person who was shot for ratting out. You don't reverse the effects of guns, period. When you respond to mundane crimes a lot of the time it's a body, because when you can't just listen harder and hear someone shout three miles away getting there in time doesn't tend to happen. (You don't unsnap the necks of people who fell too far, either.)

And Robin is fine with that. It's the job, it's the Mission, it's what he swore to do (literally swore and everything) and quite frankly that's kind of just what life in Gotham is like anyway. It just took a while for him to realise this wasn't how most of his peers played the game.

But in retrospect, after tonight, he thinks that perhaps laying all this out on the table might have been a good idea for certain members of the team who didn't really get it when the League started talking about 'covert' missions that weren't going to make it to the public. It's just that-

Fine, so he did _know_ Superboy was young. Super young, even, to take a moment to pun (and there's always a moment to pun). But it was just so easy to forget that. It hadn't taken the other boy long to cover up wide eyed nervousness with scowls and glares, and on top of that bravado he didn't exactly look like your average sixteen week old, to put it lightly. Plus, Superboy knew so many other things- the G-Gnomes' "education" hadn't exactly been incomplete.

So Robin doesn't blame himself for not realising before now that Superboy doesn't really understand death and killing and the kind of messy rage that tends to come with someone who doesn't channel it into making costumes and overwrought weaponry. But he _would_ feel guilty for following the example everyone else set when they got back, exhausted, in just ignoring his withdrawn team mate. (OK, that's harsh. They're all a bit freaked out and he can't blame them for not being in the mood for this.)

Now, Robin knows that if he knocks on Superboy's door asking to talk then he'll just get the door slammed in his face. If it opens to begin with, which is optimistic even for Robin. And admittedly Robin can pick the lock and everything (first thing he did when they settled in: learn his way around the locks), but he doesn't think that would go over well.

So... in the end he simply gets _to_ the room before the other boy. (Hey, he learns from _Batman._ Master of unexpected appearances, after all.)

While he's thinking about this, the door swings open. "Robin?" _There he is._

Well, no backing out now.

"Hey, Superboy," and he can practically _hear_ Batman in his ear: _don't give him time to deflect you_ , and OK, so that particular piece of advice was more for getting information out of people, but nobody had ever accused Batman of being good at the whole social interaction deal.

"You were, uh, looking pretty green back there." _You still are_ , is left unsaid, because it's _true_ and the truth hurts Superboy more than any of them a lot of the time. But more than ill, he looks... lost.

There's a moment or five of silence before Superboy walks over to his bed (it's made, Robin notices, and randomly wonders about how much the other boy even needs to sleep because Superboy doesn't seem the time to pristinely make his bed up every day) and sits down.

"What... _was_ that today?"

Robin takes a second to process the question.

"Well-"

But Superboy continues like he hasn't heard. "That- I don't understand! What was the point?"

Robin thinks briefly about what the others would say. Kid Flash would probably try and make a joke that would fall flat, and then drop it because _he_ didn't know, they were just freaks. Aqualad would talk about good and evil and light and dark, or something careful and considered and _moral_ like that. Miss Martian... actually, Robin can't guess at Miss Martian's answer, and he wonders what that says about her.

He doesn't like any of those options, so he ends up opting for what he learned in Gotham and hopes it makes sense.

"Because it makes them feel good. Feel- powerful." Superboy looks more lost than ever, and now Robin feels frustrated because he _knows_ how these people think, how people who target the weak (and sometimes the strong if they're really after a high) feel, and why they do it even when there aren't business deals or testimonies at stake but 'just because' like the killer tonight. It's just that he knows it so easily that he _can't_ put into words.

"I- When they target someone- they hold all the cards. Live or die, their call. And, well, it makes an impact. People notice when you run around shooting people."

Fine, that last bit did sound a teensy bit callous, and he can see it reflected in Superboy's (young, _young_ ) face, but he can't help that it's true. _Ease up, boy wonder. He's practically a little kid, he's not gonna like that._

He changes tack. "Hey, I know the first time is hard..."

Superboy studies his face for a minute, while Robin tries not to shift and fidget, tugs at his gloves and ignores how his mask itches. "When was your...?"

He wants to say. He does, because Robin knows it would help, but even Superboy can use the internet to look up the man who adopted the orphaned circus boy and put two and two together, so he can't.

(It has nothing to do with the fact that speaking it aloud makes the scene real and vivid and much too there, two deaths from before he had the mask to hide behind. Honestly.)

"A very long time ago," he settles on instead.

"Before you were Robin?"

"Sort of." _**This** Robin, anyway._

Superboy looks pensive, and Robin takes the opportunity to make for the door while he stares down at his knees.

Robin is gone before the other boy notices anything has changed, but Superboy knows where to find him if he needs anything else.

 _The thing about working with Batman is: they are both detectives, and detectives know that bodies are just cases in disguise._


End file.
